Over 1 mn people migrated from Venezuela to Colombia in past 15 months

Bogota, Jun 13 (EFE).- More than 1 million people migrated from Venezuela to Colombia in the past 15 months, of whom 819,000 are Venezuelans without the right to remain permanently, a Colombian migration official said Wednesday.

Nearly 250,000 Colombians returned home in the period, Felipe Muñoz, a migration service official, told reporters.

The migrants include 376,572 Venezuelans with legal residence in Colombia, while another 442,462 filed forms with the Administrative Registry of Venezuelan Migrants (RAMV) between April 6 and June 8.

These people “will be given some kind of temporary visas in the next two weeks,” Muñoz said.

According to RAMV data, a total of 353,575 families have entered the country which means that a portion of the 442,462 migrants still have close relatives in Venezuela.

“Eighty-eight percent of these people said they have entered Colombia in the past 16 months,” Muñoz said.
Minors account for 27 percent of migrants registered with RAMV, and 11 percent of them are 5 or younger.

“Forty-seven percent of the Venezuelans who filed registration papers are living in the seven (Colombian border) provinces” of La Guajira, Cesar, Norte de Santander, Santander, Arauca, Vichada and Guania.